Standard Life has provided £61m (€71.1m) in long-term infrastructure financing secured against a UK biomass facility in Norfolk.
The retirement specialist said the financing for the Snetterton Renewable Energy Plant was structured to provide matching adjustment-eligible, contractual cashflows from the asset, which is led by Octopus Capital.
Funding for the transaction was provided via its pension risk transfer and individual annuity premiums, it added.
The deal marks Standard Life’s first use of the infrastructure financing structure, which the firm plans to replicate across future asset acquisitions.
The 44.2MW plant, operational since 2017, generates electricity from agricultural biomass feedstocks to power over 100,000 homes.
Manuel Dusina, head of real Assets at Standard Life, said the transaction represents an important milestone for Standard Life and demonstrates how innovative structuring can create new opportunities for pension and insurance capital to access infrastructure investments.
Dusina added: “By combining real estate and infrastructure expertise, we have developed an innovative Project Infrastructure financing structure that provides the long-term, predictable cashflows our customers need while supporting sustainable investment in essential UK infrastructure.
“As a retirement specialist, our focus is on helping customers achieve better outcomes and greater financial security in later life. Investments such as this can play an important role in delivering the resilient, long-term returns that underpin retirement savings and retirement income solutions.
“We believe this approach represents a scalable blueprint for future real asset investment, providing a repeatable framework to channel institutional capital into long-duration infrastructure assets with attractive risk-adjusted return characteristics.”
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